=Paper= {{Paper |id=Vol-1819/edudm2017-paper4 |storemode=property |title= |pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1819/edudm2017-paper4.pdf |volume=Vol-1819 |authors=Manoj Bahel,Ani Thomas |dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/indiaSE/BahelT17 }} ==== https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1819/edudm2017-paper4.pdf
   INNOVATIVE EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHM APPROACH
      FOR CLASS-TEACHER TIMETABLING PROBLEM
                           Manoj Bahel                                                   Dr. (Mrs.) Ani Thomas
                        Research Scholar,                                      Professor, Dept. of Computer Applications,
                  Bhilai Institute of Technology,                                    Bhilai Institute of Technology,
                      DURG (C.G.), INDIA,                                                 DURG (C.G.), INDIA,
                  bahel.manoj@gmail.com                                                tpthomas22@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT                                                             algorithm is a general and optimization algorithms inspired
This paper presents the application of genetic algorithms            by the processes of natural selection. It can be used as
(GAs) as a means of inducing solutions to the Class-                 techniques for solving complex problems and for searching
Teacher Timetabling Problem (CTTP). Timetabling                      of large problem spaces. Unlike many heuristic schemes,
problem in almost all research focus on solving the hard             which have only one optimal solution at any time, Genetic
constraints. This is an attempt to satisfy as many soft              algorithms maintain many individual solutions in the form
constraints as possible, as soft constraints are varying in          of population. Individuals (parents) are chosen from the
nature. Initially the population is created depending on the         population and are then mated to form a new individual
number of rooms and distribution of subjects with no                 (child). The child is further mutated to introduce diversity
clashes of a particular professor. The application of genetic        into the population. Rather than starting from a single point
algorithm to this domain is divided into 3-phases, which             within the search space, GA is initialized to the population
provide timetables that meet the hard constraints during the         of guesses. These are usually random and will be spread
first phase. In the next phase different sets, which represent       throughout the search space. A typical algorithm then uses
population satisfying single soft constraints from group of          three operators, selection, crossover and mutation, to direct
soft constraints is created and in the last phase we obtain          the population toward convergence at global optimum.
the desired timetable by applying different soft constraints
in the form of Set Operations. This provides flexibility in
                                                                     2. LITERATURE REVIEW
adding or removing soft constraints easily.                          Few research papers and articles published in prestigious
                                                                     journals, on Genetic Algorithms and Resource-Constrained
CCS Concepts                                                         Scheduling were surveyed and analyzed, Lin-Yu Tseng and
•CCS → computing methodologies → Machine learning                    Shih-Chieh Chen [5] presented a paper on two-phase
→ Machine learning approaches → Bio-inspired                         genetic local search algorithm for the multimode resource-
approaches → Genetic algorithms                                      constrained project scheduling problem, in which authors
                                                                     studied, the resource-constrained project scheduling
                                                                     problem with multiple execution modes for each activity.
Keywords                                                             This paper aims to find a schedule of activities such that the
Genetic Algorithm, Timetabling, Set Operations, Time                 make span of the schedule is minimized subject to the
Slot, Hard Constraints, Soft Constraints                             precedence and resource constraints. A two phase genetic
                                                                     local search algorithm that combines the genetic algorithm
1. INTRODUCTION                                                      and the local search method to solve this problem is used.
Timetabling problems are optimization problems and can               The first phase aims to search globally for promising areas,
be thought of as a subset of scheduling problems. However,           and the second phase aims to search more thoroughly in
it is far more complicated than general scheduling as it             these promising areas. A set of elite solutions is collected
involves teachers, students, classrooms, and courses. From           during the first phase, and this set, which acts as the
a broader perspective, course arrangement includes many              indication of promising areas, is utilized to construct the
interrelated issues, such as exams, meetings, administrative         initial population of the second phase. By suitable
allocation. Conventionally, course timetabling has been              applications of the mutation with a large mutation rate, the
conducted manually. Due to the large variety of constraints,         restart of the genetic local search algorithm, and the
resource limitations and complicated human factors                   collection of good solutions in the elite set, the strength of
involved, course timetabling often takes a lot of time and           intensification and diversification can be properly adapted
manpower. Using computers to perform course timetabling,             and the search ability retained in a long term. Jorge
however, can not only consolidate the preferences of the             Magalhaes and Mendes [6] presented a paper on a
people concerned but can also enable achievement of high             comparative study of crossover operators for genetic
satisfaction in spite of the many constraints. Obviously, this       algorithms to solve the job shop scheduling problem. To
results in saving a lot of time and thus manpower. Genetic           standardized the results of experiments, GA is applied to
algorithms are among those that can be used to find                  the job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) which is based on
approximate solutions of timetabling problems. Genetic               a decision support system (DSS).In job shop scheduling
                                                                     problem There are a set of jobs j = 1,, n, a set of
Copyright © 2017 for the individual papers by the papers’ authors.   machines M=1,, m, and a set of operations O = o0,
Copying permitted for private and academic purposes. This volume     o1,oij,onm,onm+1 Set O contains all the operations of
is published and copyrighted by its editors.                         each job. Each job has m operations. Each machine can
process at most one operation at time. The JSSP is to find a             constraints to generate it we will remove the
schedule which minimizes the make span (Cmax), that is,                  fittest population representing timetable from the
the finish time of the last operation completed in the                   population and move it to the selected list. Now
schedule, taking into account the precedence constraints.                we apply cross-over and mutation operator on
Equal opportunity is given to all the operators to compare               remaining population and we continue this
the abilities of different crossover operators. The genetic              process till user defined number of times and in
crossover operators are tested on a set of standard instances            the second phase different sets representing
taken from the literature. The make span is the measure                  particular soft constraint from the group of soft
used to evaluate the genetic crossover operators. In the                 constraints is created and in third and final phase
sense of Jorge Magalhaes and Mendes authors the main                     different Set Operations are used to generate the
conclusion is that there is a crossover operator having the              final timetable.
best average performance on a specific set of solved
instances.Umut Besikcia, Umit Bilgea, Gunduz Ulusoyb[7]                 The genetic algorithm implemented in all the
presented a paper on multi-mode resource constrained                     three phases uses domain specific knowledge, in
multi-project scheduling and resource portfolio problem, in              the form of heuristics, to guide the evolutionary
this work authors introduced a multi-project problem                     process.
environment which involves multiple projects with
assigned due dates; activities that have alternative resource   4. CONCLUSION
usage modes; a resource dedication policy that does not         The timetabling problem has become a current area of
allow sharing of resources among projects throughout the        research as it becomes difficult to manage the uniformity of
planning horizon; and a total budget. The dedication of         subjects taught and clash management of rooms and
resources reduces the scheduling of the projects' activities    professors. A proper and well organized scheduling
to a multi-mode resource constrained project scheduling         approach for solving Timetabling problem is necessary.
problem (MRCPSP) for each individual project. In this           Adding or removing soft constraints much more flexible
paper, this multi-project environment is modeled in an          and we can generate different instances of time table with
integrated fashion and designated as the Resource Portfolio     less computational time. Crossover and Mutation policies
Problem. A two-phase and a monolithic genetic algorithm         can be enhanced in future work, thus generating a precise
are proposed as two solution approaches, each of which          and accurate time table generation equalizing to the
employs a new improvement move designated as the                intelligence of human brain.
combinatorial auction for resource portfolio and the
combinatorial auction for resource dedication.                  5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
                                                                This work was supported by Research and Development
                                                                Laboratory, Department of Computer Science and
3. METHODOLOGY                                                  Engineering at Bhilai Institute of Technology, Durg,
The Class-Teacher Timetabling Problem (CTTP) concerns           Chhattisgarh, India, awaiting sponsorship from suitable
scheduling teachers and classes over a set of periods,          funding agencies.
typically covering five or six week days depending upon
the institutional policy [8]. The basic constraints that must
                                                                6. REFERENCES
                                                                [1] Salvatore D. Abramson 1991. Constructing school
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                                                                    parallel algorithms. Management Science, 37:98:113.
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                                                                [2] S. Daskalaki, 2004. An integer programming
time. This classical version of the CTTP was shown to be
                                                                    formulation for a case study in university timetabling.
NP-Complete [9]. The manual construction of timetables in
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                                                                [3] L.A. Wolsey, 1975. Faces for a linear inequality in 0-1
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                                                                    variables. Mathematical Programming,
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                                                                [4] G. B. Dantzig and P. Wolfe, 1960. Decomposition
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                                                                    principle for linear programs. Operations Research.
educational system. However some common assumptions
                                                                [5] Lin-Yu Tseng and Shih-Chieh Chen 2009, Two-Phase
are made in most works like there should be gap of at least
                                                                    Genetic Local Search Algorithm For The Multimode
one period after two consecutive periods. The solution
                                                                    Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem,
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                                                                    13 NO. 4,
mentioned basic constraints. Another very common type of
                                                                [6] Jorge Magalhaes and Mendes 2013, A Comparative
soft constraint is the number of lectures required by the
                                                                    Study Of Crossover Operators For Genetic Algorithms
professor that basically depends upon type of subject taught
                                                                    To Solve The Job Shop Scheduling Problem WSEAS
by the professor. Heuristic methods are effective in practice
                                                                    TRANSACTIONS on COMPUTERS, Volume 12.
for solving timetabling problem as exact methods require
                                                                [7] Umut Besikcia, Umit Bilgea, Gunduz Ulusoyb 2014,
large amount of processing time on most timetabling
                                                                    Multi-Mode Resource Constrained Multi-Project
variants. These methods include meta heuristics such as
                                                                    Scheduling and Resource Portfolio Problem, European
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                                                                [8] Haroldo Gambini Santos,Eduardo Uchoa, Luiz Satoru
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                                                                    Ochi and Nelson Maculan 2010, Strong bounds with
applying genetic algorithms to this domain as follows:
                                                                    cut and column generation for class-teacher
          A three-phased approach is taken to the problem.
                                                                    timetabling Annals of Operations Research April
           In the first phase a genetic algorithm is employed
                                                                    2012, Volume 194, Issue 1, pp 399–412
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[9] A. Hertz, 1991. Tabu search for large scale
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